Delays happen. The weather is uncontrollable. But the insistence on lying to you throughout the day as to when they expect your flight will take off, when they know full well that time is virtually an impossible aspiration. People can change their plans if they were forthright.

Last time, American delayed the flight 5 minutes before takeoff because the plane hadn't departed Chicago. You didn't realize it took more than 5 minutes to depart Chicago earlier?

On Saturday a TSA agent told me that he had to pat me down. I raised my arms out to te side and he went on a full five minute rant at me ... "Why do you guys always raise your hands? I'm not arresting you or anything.. Who asked you to raise your hands, not me, when are you people going to learn to follow instructions...

Going through the equivalent of TSA overseas was way nicer than what we go through here.

I had left my Nexus tablet in my carry on. I totally forgot and they politely asked me if I had a "kindle" in there. And I said "Oh, yes, I forgot. Sorry." They asked politely again if it was OK if they opened my bag to retreive it. I, of course, obliged and they scanned it separately. At no point did I feel like a criminal and I was in a totally foreign land.

In the US, they just look at my passport and I feel like I'm doing it wrong.

P.S. The food on Scandanavian Air was outstanding, as good as any food we had on the ground. Full disclosure: I was high on Xanax and drunk (I don't like flying).

Going through TSA has never bothered me. I've been pulled out a few times to be searched. I don't understand what the big deal is. They're certainly incompetent for the most part, but meh. Hammer does have the only legit gripe about flying though. Everything else people like to complain about can always be avoided by giving yourself an adequate amount of time.

I never really understood the "huge hassle" with going through security either. OMG I HAVE TO TAKE OFF MY SHOES, and MY COAT???

As if that's some great hardship..

From what I've heard, airlines will often switch planes that can either screw or help you. (A plane that'll inconvenience more people is late, so they'll take your plane and then your flight gets delayed). That may explain why you are feeling you are "lied" to.

Idoit40fans wrote:Going through TSA has never bothered me. I've been pulled out a few times to be searched. I don't understand what the big deal is. They're certainly incompetent for the most part, but meh. Hammer does have the only legit gripe about flying though. Everything else people like to complain about can always be avoided by giving yourself an adequate amount of time.

I recently flew from West Palm Beach to San Juan, PR. As I am walking towards security (not even in the line yet), a TSA guard approaches me and without a lot of explanation wipes this wet goo on my hands and says "stay here". No idea what was going on at that point. About 30 seconds later he says "ok you can go". So now, I'm in the security line with this crap on my hands and I don't know what it is. After about a 5 minute line wait, I made it to the rest room and washed it off, but at that point, I definitely felt like a herded criminal.

IanMoran wrote:I never really understood the "huge hassle" with going through security either. OMG I HAVE TO TAKE OFF MY SHOES, and MY COAT???

As if that's some great hardship..

It's more than that. It deprives you of 30-45 minutes of your life. You can't take things with you. Questionable measures are used in terms of health risks. Nude scanners are entirely invasive. And all of this costs you $10 a round trip flight. It's a huge cost -- both tangible and intangible -- with absolutely no benefit.

Imagine driving on a road that lowered the speed limit 10 mph, and required you to stop for two tolls, and get out of your car. That's a huge hassle, and imagine further there's no appreciable difference in safety.

For me it's the attitude. They act all surprised when people don't want to get blasted with radiation or molested to fly on a plane. And before you even have the chance to be indignant, they come at you with attitude and condescension.

I'm sure if you act like a jerk they hand it back. But I'm referring to the times when people don't act like a jerk. And it's not "acting like a jerk" to not want the radiation scan or an invasive pat down.

Being asked to remove shoes and my jacket at LAX was kind of demeaning. Mainly because I was wearing my form fitting USMC Service uniform at the time. Ended up chatting with one of the TSA guys while putting my uniform back together and found out he was a Vietnam era CH-46 crew chief, so it's not like the guy feeling your junk came up with the idea on his own, they're just people with a high profile low paying thankless* job.

*This is different than the opinion that the job is useless that brings no added value to national security, which it is.

Idoit40fans wrote:Going through TSA has never bothered me. I've been pulled out a few times to be searched. I don't understand what the big deal is. They're certainly incompetent for the most part, but meh. Hammer does have the only legit gripe about flying though. Everything else people like to complain about can always be avoided by giving yourself an adequate amount of time.

This. I've flown a lot in the past and never really felt it was a hassle.

yubb wrote:For me it's the attitude. They act all surprised when people don't want to get blasted with radiation or molested to fly on a plane. And before you even have the chance to be indignant, they come at you with attitude and condescension.

Idoit40fans wrote:Going through TSA has never bothered me. I've been pulled out a few times to be searched. I don't understand what the big deal is. They're certainly incompetent for the most part, but meh. Hammer does have the only legit gripe about flying though. Everything else people like to complain about can always be avoided by giving yourself an adequate amount of time.

This. I've flown a lot in the past and never really felt it was a hassle.

yubb wrote:For me it's the attitude. They act all surprised when people don't want to get blasted with radiation or molested to fly on a plane. And before you even have the chance to be indignant, they come at you with attitude and condescension.

Don't fly then?

This response seems absurd. Is that a real dichotomy? It's not like you're disgusted with Olive Garden but have numerous other restaurants from which to choose.

I was at LAX and got pulled aside for some kind of random screening. They swabbed my hands then locked me in this glass cage thing while they ran it. I'm guessing it was for some kind of explosive detection, which I understand, but the glass cage thing was somewhat demeaning. It's right in the middle of the screening area, so people are passing you on both sides.